Critical Essay by Bruce Hayman

SOURCE: “How Old is Prufrock? Does He Want to Get Married?,” in College Language Association Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1, September, 1994, pp. 59-68.

In the following essay, Hayman contends that the meaning of “Prufrock” depends on Prufrock's age and intentions.

Before I try to answer the two questions which entitle this essay, I would like to pose a third question and try to answer it: what difference does it make? What difference does it make whether Prufrock is young or middle-aged, or whether he wants to get married or not? For a number of reasons, I think that it makes a significant difference.

First, it is a question of reading T. S. Eliot's “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”What do we know about J. Alfred Prufrock, and how...